


Popularity and Wishes Don't Mix

by AshSPN



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, M/M, Popular Kid and the Nerd AU woo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 04:51:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2534819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshSPN/pseuds/AshSPN
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had the power in the palm of his hands and he was watching as he shaped the school into just the way that he wanted it to be.</p><p>Filled for a prompt on Tumblr that came from me reblogging a meme. It was for the popular kid and the nerd au. So, yay! Teen!AU.</p><p>Teens are jerkwads, btw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Popularity and Wishes Don't Mix

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was actually a lot of fun to write, if I'm completely honest. I hope it cheers the anon on tumblr up. I took ages writing this. Kept getting distracted. So sorry. Gah.

The thing about all of this is if you had told Dean that he would be popular a year ago, he would have laughed in your face and shoved you out of his way because he would have thought you were wasting his time. If you said something about him being popular now, he wouldn’t know how to deny it because for better or for worse, it was actually _true_. During the end of his Sophomore year and coming into his current year – as a Junior, of course – he had developed quite the _fan-base_ , more or less.

It was during the last few months of school the previous year that he had done something that he thought that he would live to regret when he found himself in the face of their vice principal, Vickie Guerrero. He was a disrespectful little brat, that was for sure. He had basically told her flat out that she was abusing her power and he was just about tired of hearing her voice every time he decided to walk down the hall. It had been a confrontation for the ages that had lead him to getting suspended, and then led to everyone in the student body hosting something that Dean referred to as the ‘Ambrose-induced quiet riot’.

It had been posted all over the internet and had a massive following. Roman had been sending him links to all of the pictures and all of the stories about it. When Dean had come back – after 7 days of the ‘Ambrose-induced quiet riot’ – he had stepped out of the car and spread his arms like a celebrity and had been flocked around. It was another week of the ‘Ambrose-induced quiet riot’ before the suspension was taken off of his record permanently. He was taken in to a very heated meeting with the principal – Vince McMahon – with his mother who was half of it the entire time, then released again after he blatantly told them he had no idea how to work social media, much less how to organize a riot.

It had made him a star, though, and everyone talked to him about it animatedly and showed him all the photos they had. It was almost heartwarming more than anything. It had carried over all the way through the summer and into this school year. He had the power in the palm of his hands and he was watching as he shaped the school into just the way that he wanted it to be.

The only problem that he seemed to be having nowadays was people who loved the way that Dean spoke out against anything he had problems with, but they _hated anyone who was trying to ‘copy’ him_. Seriously, Dean didn’t even think they were trying to copy him, so much as they finally just got the courage to speak out about the things that they were passionate about that could receive some backlash. Hell, half the things they were talking about, Dean would back them up on.

Dean is riding into the parking lot on his motorcycle now – yes, he’s a teenager with a motorcycle. He had been working on this thing since he was like 5 when his uncle was still around helping him. It was special. Impeccable – and he could see it from where he was where a group of the people he sometimes hung out with but otherwise couldn’t stand were messing with someone who looked strikingly familiar and that just wasn’t going to sit well with Dean. There was some fierce need in his stomach to protect all of these people who were being wrongfully ‘dealt with’, but something about this one just made everything in him screech out for vengeance.

“Break it up,” Dean is snapping as he parks his bike close to them, shutting the engine off and kicking out the stand to set it on. “Don’t even fucking care what all of this is about. Disperse and get back to doing whatever the fuck it is that you guys do before you go to class. Too damn early for anyone to be causing trouble.” The group looks like they’re about to argue or provide their reason for tormenting whatever poor bastard it was they were tormenting, but they just all kind of huff and leave it at that.

Dean is putting his keys into his pocket and moving through where the group is dispersing, but stopping when he sees the male who was being ‘dealt with’. Half of his hair was bleached blonde, long locks covering the majority of his face, but as he looks up from where he’s picking up his books to look at Dean, Dean is momentarily lost in the memories. It’s Seth Rollins, a childhood friend of Dean’s that he hadn’t talked to in what had to be over five years. In fact, Dean doesn’t even remember seeing him at all for the past few months and it’s already nearly November.

“Seth?” Dean asks, just to make sure that this was indeed the guy he had spent ages in his childhood with and shared everything with before they were forced to go down two separate paths in life and lost connection along the way. “Damn man, is that you? I haven’t seen you in years.”

“Yeah,” is all he says at first, gathering up the rest of his books and standing up, clearing his throat softly before a scowl appears on his face. “That the welcoming committee that you happen to set up for anyone who comes along acting like competition or am I just special?” It comes out as an angry question, a snarl, something that should have been leaving Dean feeling somewhat defensive. After all, the guy _did_ just accuse him of wanting people to get hurt.

“Sure, that’s why I rolled right on up and saved your punk ass, right?” Dean drawls easily, dusting off Seth’s shirt some before patting him on the arm. “Because that just makes all the sense in the world.”

Seth shrugs off Dean’s touch and scowls harder before he’s just turning tails and walking away without so much as a _goodbye_. Seriously, who did that? And why would he do that? Had he heard some bad things about Dean? Probably, and honestly, that just sucked. Dean had been half-hoping they could rekindle an old friendship and see how that went, but apparently, that was too much to ask for. He rolls his shoulders and shakes it off.

Until he catches the same group of people doing the same exact thing, except this time, Seth is _right in their faces_ and he has some of the most adorable glasses on that make Dean realize how cute he is. See, now he _has_ to do something about this and get his hand into that _cookie jar_ , so to say. He couldn’t just leave it to where Seth was thinking bad about him. So, he comes to the rescue again and Seth is glaring at him until Dean is plucking the glasses from his face and putting them on himself.

“What are you doing? Don’t break them!” Seth is huffing at him as Dean goes cross-eyed trying to see. “Stop that! Don’t say anything!” Seth huffs out now, snatching the glasses from Dean’s face, where Dean is beginning to grin wide, because for some reason this just honestly felt so _natural_. “What are you smiling at?”

“You’re blind,” Dean teases and Seth is snorting out a laugh of disbelief, a smile coming to his lips as he puts his glasses back on. “Seriously, you’re blind. Why do you ever take those things off?”

“I don’t like the way I look in them sometimes, if you really want to know. I much prefer my contacts. Now, since you’ve come along and played Prince Charming again, I think I should get off because people start thinking I’m your bitch or something,” Seth murmurs, shifting his glasses and making a face. “And before your fat head stretches my glasses or something. Fitting weird now.”

“Oh blow me,” Dean huffs out defensively, but is grinning nonetheless. “We should hang out again sometime. If you want to. It would be nice, I think, you know?” He was wording things horrendously and realized belatedly that he actually feels kind of embarrassed and nervous about this. How… bizarre, for lack of a better word. Great, now he feels like Regal. He’s just glad he’s out of that fucker’s class this year.

Seth just kind of looks at him for a moment, like he’s trying to figure out if Dean was being serious or not, and then his face just kind of _lights up_. It makes Dean so glad he asked about hanging out again. “Yeah, okay, sure.”

“Great,” Dean replies with a goofy smile coming across his face and for some reason, Dean feels like this is going to be a lot more than he thinks it’s going to be.

Turns out he’s not exactly _wrong_. He and Seth end up hanging out every day after school for hours for about the next month, sometimes with Roman – who is a Senior at the school they go to – and sometimes without. The times without are more frequent than the times with and things always seem to get a bit more intense when they’re alone. It’s like they both know what they want – and trust Dean, he does. He _knows what he wants_ – but they’re both terrified to try and get it for fear that they’ll just ruin the friendship that had recently rekindled. Dean doesn’t want to lose his friend all over again.

Nothing really changes about their life in school. They don’t have any of the same classes together and they both generally show up at different times anyway. It’s always after school that the real difference is made and Dean thought that was fine with the both of them. So, it just continues.

Throughout the month that they spend together, they end up celebrating Halloween together, spending the night with Roman who was taking his little cousins trick or treating. The three high school boys end up going as matching members of a biker gang. Seth tells Dean that he pulls off the look a little too well when the boy comes rolling in on his motorcycle with a smug look on his face. Dean makes a crude joke about taking Seth for a ride later that has Roman smacking him upside the head. It was one of the best nights that Dean can remember having in a while.

The rest of the time of the month is spent mostly at Seth’s house because Dean didn’t want him to see the dump he was living in, or some of the times were spent at Roman’s, where they ate amazingly prepared dinners from Roman’s mom who had to be one of Dean’s favorite people in the entire world. They were always spent animatedly talking about something – like wrestling, which was Dean’s favorite topic – and at some points, Seth and Roman would try and explain social media to Dean, who ended up waving it off as something that he would never need. There was quite a few times spent watching Roman braid Seth’s hair – to Dean’s own amusement – as Seth complains about it and Roman just grins all the while.

It was through all of these times spent with his friends and away from the ‘popular’ crowd that he had found himself in (he had blown off so many invites to parties or just a general hang out. He had more important plans nowadays, after all) that Dean realizes just how much he had been missing out on with people who actually cared more about him than just his big mouth. It was through all this time that Dean had heard Roman let out an honest to god _giggle_ at something and he watched Seth laugh so hard that he ended up snorting. It was the most unattractive sound in the world and Dean feels that was the exact moment that he realizes he had fallen in love with a boy he had barely talked to in the last half decade.

Now that you know Dean’s dirty little secret, it’s a month later and the last day of school before Thanksgiving break has just ended. Dean feels like it’s a blessing because he’s ready to just spend the entire week with his boys without having to worry about having school the next day. He’s all bouncing outside of the school with a grin on his face, going to where he normally met up with Roman and Seth. No matter what Dean did, Seth always seemed to manage to beat him there, but today, there was no Seth standing.

It makes Dean’s stomach twist in a bit of agitation, thinking that maybe someone was picking on Seth again – they never quit, that much Dean knew, even if Seth never talked about it – and he begins to whip his head around, looking for the male he and Roman deemed as their little brother once more. He was nowhere in sight, but a car that kind of looked like Seth’s parents’ was pulling out of the parking lot. It felt like there was a heavy ball of lead in Dean’s stomach now.

He tried to text Seth and even texted Roman asking if he knew where he was, but he got no response from Seth and Roman didn’t have a clue. Maybe Seth had a sudden family trip he was taking that was leaving him busy and he didn’t think to mention to Dean and Roman, but that couldn’t be right, could it? When he still hadn’t gotten a text from Seth about 15 minutes later, Dean agrees to go hang out with the popular friends he had made before, just to try and get his mind off of it.

It didn’t feel right, but Roman had something to do today so he couldn’t just go hang out with him instead. The crowd seemed so _fake_ compared to the hours spent talking to Seth and Roman about _anything and everything_. He leaves feeling emptier than he remembers feeling in a long time. He checks his phone for texts, but there’s nothing there. He goes home and falls asleep.

Thanksgiving break comes and goes. Dean spends most of his time at Roman’s, which is occupied with what seems to be Roman’s entire family and they have absolutely no time to talk among just each other. Roman tells him every day that he still hasn’t heard anything from Seth and Dean returns the favor in the same fashion. After a while of this going on, Dean just stops trying and treats his phone like he used to: like it was nonexistent.

Thanksgiving Break passes and suddenly, it’s the first week of December and Dean’s birthday is in a week and he’ll be turning 17 and he doesn’t think he’s ready for it, especially since he hasn’t spoken to Seth since before the break. He pulls in on his bike to see Seth pushing at one of the guys that Dean has been hanging around with a bit more, who was stepping just a bit too close. He nearly abandons his bike, but he manages to keep his cool until he parks it.

Then, he’s stalking towards where Seth and the guy are. The guy’s backing off immediately, holding his hands up in defeat and heading off before Dean could do any damage to him. Seth is red in the face from his anger and he’s not looking at Dean.

“Where’ve you been?” Dean asks out gruffly, looking to where the guy who had been messing with Seth went to hang out with some group of people. “Texted you. Never heard back. Not exactly something that friends do.”

“Was told that you didn’t want to talk to me anymore,” Seth mutters out and Dean’s eyes slide to the two-toned-haired boy, brows furrowing. “Thought it sounded a bit crazy, but I thought you might’ve been testing me. You did say you liked to play mind games.”

“Not with you or Ro,” Dean huffs out, taking a risk and gently bumping into Seth, who bumps back after a moment’s hesitation. “You should actually come talk to me if someone’s giving you some kind of shit. People basically worship the ground I walk on nowadays but I’m not afraid to end up being a nerd like you.”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Seth huffs out, pushing Dean lightly. “Haven’t talked to me in over a week and you’re already giving me shit. I want a divorce.”

“Too bad, I’m not going to be signing those papers. Means you get half and I’m not giving up half of Roman,” Dean jokes and that easy smile that is always on his face when Roman and Seth was around was there again. Yes, _this_ is something right. This was true friendship. And if those other fuckers were spreading lies, he wasn’t going to fuck with them anymore. “My birthday’s next week. Was thinking me, you, and Ro could hang out and play video games or something.”

“Sounds good to me,” Seth agrees easily, grinning back at Dean when he turns to see the smile on his face. Dean immediately wants to kiss him and doesn’t know how he manages to hold himself back, but he does, and damn does it make him want to whine.

Getting back into the swing of things school-wise after a break and knowing that another one is coming up almost immediately isn’t something that Dean has ever been good at, but he tries his best. He spends his days after school with Seth again and with football season being over, Roman is with them almost all the time and Dean doesn’t remember the last time he was this happy.

His birthday is the best birthday that he can remember having. They leave school and Seth is telling them that he’d have to meet them at Roman’s because his mom wanted him to come home _real quick_ and with a bit of a fuss, Dean allows it. When he gets to Roman’s, Roman’s mom had made him a three layer cake. And he means those actual layers of cake and not just thin little things that Dean would never say were layers. Dean nearly bursts into actual tears then and it just adds onto it when Seth shows up with cupcakes he and his mom had made for the occasion.

Dean doesn’t know which family he loves more, but he knows that he would have never had this without both of them. He ends up trying to excuse himself for a smoke when emotions get to be too much, but he’s sat down and they sing happy birthday to him. He doesn’t remember the last time he had a birthday like this and he doesn’t remember when he last did something as childish as _make a wish_ , but he does today because they all encourage him to.

He doesn’t know what he wants to wish for. He feels like everything he’s ever wanted was right there in the room. A family who loves him – even if it isn’t his blood family – and everyone he loves smiling back at him. But if he’s going to be wishing her, he might as well get greedy. So, he wishes that maybe one day he’ll get the chance to even _kiss_ Seth, and that’s that. They’re getting slices of cake and going to play video games.

They manage to go through half of the layer cake and are making their way through the cupcakes. Roman’s mom and Seth’s mom both said that they could have the next day off from school tomorrow and Roman’s mom was going to call both Roman and Dean in sick to the office while Seth’s mom called him in sick. It was absolute perfection in Dean’s opinion. They’re all sat in the living room of Roman’s house at midnight, watching some kind of cheap horror movie on the SyFy channel that has Dean snickering under his breath.

Roman is basically clonked out somewhere over to Dean’s right, hogging most of one of the covers they were given by Momma (that’s what Dean calls Roman’s mom). Dean is half concerned he might be in a sugar-induced coma, but he himself was feeling the energy of the sugar from all the sweets dying away. At other side, Seth is leaned against him heavily, taking a bite out of one of the cupcakes. Dean has to wonder where he puts it all and still manages to look the way he does. There’s icing on Seth’s upper lip and it looks tempting. Dean begins to wonder why it would be so bad and realizes he must have been staring for a while because when he’s snapped back into reality, Seth is staring right back at him.

Dean thinks, briefly, that something about this should be awkward. But it isn’t. Seth still has that damn icing on his lip, but as he’s going to lick it off, Dean is leaning in. Dean’s lips collide with Seth’s, briefly feeling Seth’s tongue against his lip before it’s gone and the taste of sugar and something that was purely _Seth_ was hitting his senses.

The kiss is deepened immediately, Seth’s slightly sticky fingers pushing into his hair and pulling him just a bit closer. Dean parts his lips easily and he doesn’t know how long they’re just sitting there making out before suddenly, Roman is slinging his legs across their laps.

They both break away from each other as Roman is grumbling something about keeping it PG, and then he’s dozing off again. The two awake teenagers were now blushing, but couldn’t help but grin at each other wide.

“Best birthday ever,” Dean whispers. The reply he gets is just another kiss. Wishes do come true.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are a way to my heart, as are prompts! ^o^


End file.
